Colm Meaney has said he relished playing the ruthless but roguishly charming King Francois of France in lavish new historical drama The Serpent Queen.
The eight-part series, which airs on STARZPLAY from 11 September, tells the story of Catherine de Medici (Samantha Morton) who, against all odds, became one of the most powerful and longest-serving rulers in French history.
Finglas-born Meaney (69), who rose to fame with roles in Star Trek: The Next Generation and the much-loved film versions of Roddy Doyle's Barrytown trilogy, plays King Francis, the "virile, militaristic" ruler with an easy command of power due to an outsized ego, voracious appetites, and past exploits on the battlefield.
Speaking to RTÉ Entertainment via Zoom from his home in Majorca, Meaney says, "Like a lot of kings, Francois was a very big character. He enjoyed life, he was known to be a drinker and womaniser and very much a domineering figure in the court and in France.
"His early career was hugely successful. He reconquered the Italian territories that France had lost but in the later part of his career it started to quieten down and he went downhill a bit. France lost some of those territories, so he has mixed success in terms of his reign."
Francois's mastery of 16th century European court intrigue sees him plot the marriage of his second son to the young Catherine de Medici as he wants the union to secure France’s claim on certain Italian territories.
Catherine’s tale unfolds through flashbacks in The Serpent Queen as she defends her actions and imparts the lessons she’s learned to her new servant girl, Rahima (Sennia Nanua).
As we see in the first episode of the new drama, the 14-year-old, orphaned Catherine marries into the 16th-century French court. Despite her commoner status, her uncle Pope Clement (Charles Dance), has negotiated a large dowry and a geopolitical alliance in return for the union, and with it comes the expectation of many heirs.
However, on her wedding night, Catherine learns that her new husband is in love with Diane de Poitiers (Ludivine Sagnier), a beautiful lady-in-waiting twice his age. It leaves Catherine's future suddenly uncertain and little hope of conceiving.
She must quickly learn who she can trust - both within her personal entourage of courtiers and the members of the royal court - while outmaneuvering anyone who underestimates her determination to survive at any cost.
But King Francois could be the real scene stealer here and he has some of the drama’s most stinging one-liners. He’s dry, mischievous and maybe a bit of a swine - but he’s got the roguish charm and swagger to get away with it.
"There are people like that still around today, Trump comes to mind," Meaney says. "But there are lots of people who believe they are above the law, and they can absolutely do as they please and I think in those days, kings were supreme.
"They had no constraints on them. There was no real parliament in France, there was a thing that sat twice a year, but it was really just to rubberstamp whatever the king was doing so when you think of a guy who was unrestrained in that way, it is understandable that he did have certain tendencies that would not be acceptable today."
Sounds like a certain former "King of the World" named Boris would have fitted in nicely but is Francois a bit of a swine? "I’m not sure," Meaney says. "I think he operated in a way that he was allowed to operate, he had an ego and he had very clear ideas about how he wanted France to be run. How he wanted his family affairs conducted and how he ran his own life."
Set against the spectacular backdrop of the Italian Renaissance, you can really see the budget on the screen in The Serpent Queen with those superb interiors and costume design. But underneath all that beauty lurks Papal and royal subterfuge and the dark arts of the royal court.
However, this is a thoroughly modern take on 16th century European history. Patti Smith is on the soundtrack and the dialogue is very 21st century, with producers taking a creative decision not to retro fit history to avoid offending modern mores.
It also rips a page from Fleabag with leading lady Sennia Nanua addressing the camera in first person. But she doesn’t so much demolish the fourth wall as spray graffiti all over it. The Serpent Queen is so wicked that it just might turn Bridgerton fans ashen faced.
"I haven’t seen Bridgerton so I can’t compare," Meaney says. "But what struck me first about the script of this show was the contemporary nature of the dialogue but at the same time couching it in a classical context. It’s a balancing act. You don’t want to go too far over the top, but it couches the story in a modern context which I think is great."
Meaney spent five months filming, starting in Marseilles, then to the Loire Valley and then back to Marseilles. "It was tremendous. For me it was one of the best gigs I’ve ever had - great material, great locations, great cast, great directors," he says.
"It was just a joy all round and we had just come out of lockdown. I tell you I was so excited when I read the script because I like doing historical stuff.
"The last series I did that ran for any length was Hell On Wheels, which was about the 1860s transcontinental railroad in America and then I did a Shakespeare on which only lasted a season.
He adds, "The Serpent Queen is historically accurate in so many ways in terms of costume and we actually filmed in many of the locations in the Loire Valley where these events took place but what I really loved about it was that the dialogue didn’t try to be pseudo-Shakespeare, if you know what I mean."
As well as a commanding performance from Morton as the enigmatic and powerful Catherine, The Serpent Queen also stars Charles Dance as the cunning Pope Clement and Antonia Clarke as Mary Queen Of Scots.
It’s a cutting satire on the vanity and arrogance of the aristocracy and the papacy with a very contemporary bite that really captures an era when women were chattel and men, well, men were idiots.
"Absolutely. You can call it stupidity, but they got away with it," says Meaney. "The way countries and the church were run until quite recently and the way the church is run in many ways is still quite shocking.
"The Serpent Queen is set 400 years and you have to ask, have we moved on? We certainly have but have we moved on far enough? I don’t think so.
"For anyone today who is remotely enlightened of intelligent, it is shocking the way men behaved. In the context of MeToo, Francois would be in jail for the rest of his life!"
The Serpent Queen is available to stream on STARZPLAY from 11 September
Alan Corr @CorrAlan2
